MY PERSONAL OPINIONAnswer:War Mages are nice since they only use magic gems and resetting your class abilities are free. If Venan messes up a class (see War Mage class version 1.0), you don’t have to replace 20 Tier 7 melee gems with Tier 7 magic gems or vice versa. There is also a huge savings at end game, due to stat curves it is better to have all magic gems, or all melee gems, since you need less to be combat effective than if you have 50% of each.

Inquisitors are the same as War Mages above.

Early analysis shows Flame Wardens and Frost Knights have a good balance of melee PvP/ Boss attack, melee group attacks, magic PvP/ Boss attack and melee group attacks. No matter which gem you buy, or win from Majerio’s Shard Lockbox, you should benefit from it. This may change at any time.

CJ loves her magic Justicar Galadriel, but is constantly told “you should get more kills in Onslaught/ higher PvP Rating”. Magic Justicars are harder to build than Melee Justicars. Melee Justicars benefit hugely from Backswing rank 3 that improved melee Justicars Onslaught kills and PvP Rating. If considering a Justicar, start off Melee or 50% Melee, but not 0% Melee until you have a good understanding of the game mechanics.

Currently I cannot recommend Shadow Walkers to new players. I hesitate to recommend Magic Justicars to inexperienced players.

Note 1)

Bj_Knows wrote:(ominous sounding Ken Burn's soundtrack)"v1.4 it was the best of times and the worst of times. The Shadow Walkers were reviled through out the land for stealing all the Onslaught RPP with Vanish 3. If only the Shadow Walkers had known about the cabal of Ice Mages, and their dastardly plot for v1.5. It was called, Project Deep Freeze..."https://www.venan.com/boh_forum/viewtopic.php?p=44506#p44506

MY PERSONAL OPINIONAnswer:If you decide to us In App Purchase to get Gold Shields, I recommend the following priorities

Tier 11 Weapon/ Tier 19The single most important piece of gear is your weapon, so buying a Tier 11 Weapon at Level 15 is *very* cost effective. Consider getting the Tier 19 Weapon from TVal and HoliGob.

This can be especially important for Vile Realm Incursion Portals and Seasonal Bosses since they scale with a character's level, not might. If you don't have a high enough weapon for your level, you will struggle with these variable level monsters.

Sigil Bundle or Tier 11 Armor Bundle/ Tier 19, Part 1Now that Sigil Bundle exists (20% off) it is a tie between Sigle Bundle after you unlock Raid Quests or Tier 11 Armor Bundel (20% off) when you reach Level 15. If you can afford both, that is also cool. Consider getting the Tier 19 Chest, Helm and Leg Armor from Seasonal Events.

You can never have enough Energy bar, and good armor increases your might rating so you can get into better raids (with better rewards, including essence at high level), while reducing the damage you take (saving you silver coin on healing potions and temple healing).

Chest, Helm and Leg Armor give you the benefits of increasing might from good gem slot multipliers, but also a good increase in your armor. Amulet and Ring give you no benefit without gems, while weapon, chest, helm and leg armor give you benefits in addition to the gems they hold.

Sigil Bundle or Tier 11 Armor Bundle/ Tier 19, Part 2Buy the other one so you have both Sigil Bundle and Tier 11 Armor Bundle at Level 15.

Build 2You get a 1 PvP only Build & 1 Build (Player VS Anything, Multi-purpose, etc.) that you can use use in both. Since many VS group abilities (Assassinate, Flash Freeze, etc.) are not good VS Boss and many VS Boss (Garrote, Elemental Fracture, etc.) are less useful VS group, it can increase your combat effective by buying a Build just for Mob combat in Dungeon/ Raids (Build 1 for free) and Boss combat in Dungeon/ Raids (Build 2 for 90 GS). This is *really* seen in low levels where getting all the class abilities you want ar rank 3 is impossible with your ability points. Having a Mob Build & Boss Build effectively doubles your ability points.

Tier 6 Haste Gem plus Tier 11 Ring and AmuletIf you have Tier 11 Chest, Ring and Amulet, buying 3* Tier 6 Haste Gems will be the best increase in combat effectiveness for Tier 6 Gems. Haste rules BoH. In addition, you will not have to replace them until you buy Tier 7 Haste Gems, saving you a huge amount of silver coin and valor, The top raids in the game are set for characters running Tier 6 Gems so you can still run them when you get enough might rating.

Tier 6 Magic GemIf you have a War Mage, or an Inquisitor, with Tier 11 Chest, Ring and Amulet, buying 3* Tier 6 Magic Gems will be the best increase in combat effectiveness after Tier 6 Haste Gems. Since all your class abilities use magic rating, damage for all of them increases from these gems. See Tier 6 Haste Gems for details.

Depending on your play style, and Venan adjusting class abilities, other classes should by 1-3* Tier 6 Magic Gems and/ or 1-3* Tier 6 Melee Gems, but no more than 3 Tier 6 Red Gems (unless you have a lot of money to spend on BoH).

Build 3- Crypt / SeasonalSeasonal Events may need you to fight both Elite Bosses mixed with Groups (HoliGob, Lucky, etc.) or the time pressure may make switching from Mob Build to Boss Build (TVal, WereChef, etc.) a pain. So you will want a Seasonal Build. Instead of nerfing your Mob Build for the Event, you can buy another Build. When the Seasonal Event is over, you can repurpose this Build for Crypt of Corruption Mobs when silver farming. Especially at high might rating, or running Elixirs, Crypt Mobs need different abilities to maximize silver, healing potions, runes, etc.

Tier 6 WeaponYou only get to PvP at Level 10, and at Level 15 you want to buy the Tier 11 Weapon, so this is a good use of gold shields, but not as good as the above uses.

Tier 6 Armor BundleSee Tier 6 Weapon for details.

Tier 3 Haste GemIf you still want to spend gold shields, have Tier 11 Chest, Ring and Amulet (or Tier 6 before Level 15), buying 3* Tier 3 Haste Gems will further increase your Haste, but they are really, really cheap. You will replace them faster than the Tier 6 Haste Gems above, but for low level they are nice against Vile Realm Invasion Portals and Seasonal Bosses that scale with a character's level.

Tier 3 Crit Power GemsFinally, if you want to spend more gold shields, have Tier 11 Chest, Ring and Amulet (or Tier 6 before Level 15), buying 2* Tier 3 Crit Power Gems will increase your might rating and critical hits. You are only buying 2 because Crit Power has a weird Stat Curve (but not as weird as Haste). See Tier 3 Haste Gems above for further details

Seasonal Event Gear or GS for Energy during Seasonal EventsSeasonal Event Gear is often top of the line gear.

Raid Energy for Guild RaidsHelp your Guild in addition to any free energy you use.

Energy for MercingGet XP, valor and hero tokens

What Ever You WantStill want to support the developers, buy whatever you want with gold shields

RNGPvP is like Poker, or Spades, skill plays a major role, but Random Number Generation can be a pain. While Running a Boston (winning all 13 tricks) in Spades sucks for the other team, it sucks worse when a single player has most of the high level spades, and Aces, since it may require very little skill depending on the other three hands. Having a Royal Straight Flush, Ace high, in Poker is nice, unless everyone else has trash, ten high, and folds immediately. Luckily RNG this bad only makes a rare appearance (but if it does please share your replay in Guild Chat & PvP Chat). Sometimes you will get an entire evening of cruddy hands after cruddy hands or, in the case of PvP, cruddy RNG during bout after bout.

Your chance of getting one pair in Poker, is roughly your chance of Status Resist proccing if you have three Status Resist rank 9 enchants. Not bad, but not great. That doesn't even factor in PvP Build and matching.

Enchants, Gear & GemsContinuing the Poker/ Spades metaphor, you need maximum might in BoH PvP before you are even allowed to play Aces. If you spend your essence and valor on the wrong enchants, gems, gear and build, you might not even be allowed to play Jacks, or higher, at maximum PvP might (sorry CJ's Spirit Justicar Galadriel). In this metaphor, Jacks, or higher, would just be blank cards (thank you Robert Asprin & Dragon Poker).

Low level PvP players are restricted to Two through Five, making the game less about RNG and more about who can play Sixes (enchants, gear & gems)

Venan is unlikely to set up a PvP event where a Level 10 character can win against the Top 100 Might Rating characters in BoH

Opponent PoolPvP Matching tries to match you with an opponent that has a 50% chance of losing to you, if RNG does not smile on one of you. But sometimes the only opponents in matching pool have less than a 5% chance of losing to you. Eventually matching will match you with a bad match, just to get the two of you out of the matching pool.

This means cancelling matching after 30 seconds, and trying again, has no effect unless you can get all the higher level characters to quit PvP for the rest of the day. In fact, if you are unlucky, cancelling matching everry 30 seconds to try again, can hurt you. While you are out of the opponent pool, your perfect opponent (50% chance of losing to you) may be matched with another player. Just stay in the opponent pool, unless you have internet connectivity issues.

If you want better matches, convince your Friends list, or the rest of the Guild, to PvP during the same 30 minute period. The more Friends list you have in the Coliseum, the more characters your PvP Rating in the matching pool. If you can, get several Guilds and several large groups involved. The more the merrier. Plus, even if matching RNG turns bad (real world randomness not programming algorithm randomness), your friends, or guild mates, got the PvP Rating increase and PvP Marks. A win/ win for everyone.

Mugging PvE Monsters or Staying in Bronze IIIInstead of playing versus a computer that you can out think, you are playing against other humans. They might be able to out think you. It is cool when you make the brilliant, cunning play of the bout, but sucks when you are on the other end. PvP *tries* to match you with opponents who will make you work for a win. Unlike getting frustrated against high level programmed Monster, where you can always go mug a lower level Dungeon or Raid (looking at you Crypt of Corruption silver farming). You *can* mug a low level character in PvP, but it take a lot of time and effort to stay in Bronze III League.

PvP Shop Enchant Recipes are ridiculously cheap. They are also a lot less frustrating than trying to get a Recipe Drop from a Dungeon you no longer get Hero Score from completing. Once you have all the Enchant Recipes you need, you can save up for the Tier 18 Coliseum Weapon.

You can use one piece of Coliseum gear in PvE with only a -2% Damage penalty. If you use two pieces, the penalty is too high for most gear(-4% Damage penalty) Though 2h Weapons are the exception (extra damage makes up for the extra -2% Damage penalty). Your Weapon is the most important single piece of gear. So I save up for the Tier 18 Coliseum Weapon, then use it in PvE until I can get the Tier 19 Weapon from TVal or HoliGob. Once I have the Tier 19 Weapon, I use the Tier 18 Coliseum Leg Armor since the Lucky Tier 19 Leg Armor is so expensive. Coliseum Gear and Seasonal Gear is much cheaper in hours spent earning, and GS spend burning, than raid Tier 18 gear. Seasonal Tier 19 gear is actually better than raid Tier 18 gear.

She would have gotten the Raid Tier 16 Staff & Coliseum Tier 18 Staff (-4% Damage), but she still had the Raid Tier 14 Staff when she got the TVal Tier 19 Staff. So she bought the Coliseum Tier 16 (-4% Damage) until she could level enough to use the Tier 19 TVal Staff. Once she unlocked the TVal Tier 19 Staff, she bought Coliseum Tier 18 Leg Armor (-2% Damage VS Monsters) for use in both PvE and PvP.

If you like PvP, you can also buy the Tier 18 Coliseum Amulet, Ring and Cloak. Enchants like Luck, Energy Regen, and Healing are useless in PvP. So you might want two sets of Enchanted Amulet, Ring and Cloak. While you are enchanting two sets, your PvP set may as well be Coliseum Gear for the +3% Damage VS Player.

After buying all the above, the Enchanters Lockbox give you Enchant Materials to improve your PvE and PvP Enchants. You can also use the Materials to transfer your Enchants when you get higher level gear or Venan releases higher level gear for BoH.

Even if you are loaded with Enchant Materials, it is usually not worth the expense of creating, and transferring, two full sets of enchants (PvE Gear & PvP Gear, 36 Enchants total) unless you are in Master League where they supposedly don't have much else to buy with Marks.

Build 2You get a 1 PvP only Build & 1 Build (Player VS Anything, Multi-purpose, etc.) that you can use use in both. Since many VS group abilities (Assassinate, Flash Freeze, etc.) are not good VS Boss and many VS Boss (Garrote, Elemental Fracture, etc.) are less useful VS group, it can increase your combat effective by buying a Build just for Mob combat in Dungeon/ Raids (Build 1 for free) and Boss combat in Dungeon/ Raids (Build 2 for 90 GS). This is *really* seen in low levels where getting all the class abilities you want ar rank 3 is impossible with your ability points. Having a Mob Build & Boss Build effectively doubles your ability points.

Build 3- Crypt / SeasonalSeasonal Events may need you to fight both Elite Bosses mixed with Groups (HoliGob, Lucky, etc.) or the time pressure may make switching from Mob Build to Boss Build (TVal, WereChef, etc.) a pain. So you will want a Seasonal Build. Instead of nerfing your Mob Build for the Event, you can buy another Build. When the Seasonal Event is over, you can repurpose this Build for Crypt of Corruption Mobs when silver farming. Especially at high might rating, or running Elixirs, Crypt Mobs need different abilities to maximize silver, healing potions, runes, etc.